Books

When Ideas Mattered: A Nathan Glazer Reader

– Glazer, Nathan. Joseph Dorman and Leslie Lenkowsky, eds. When Ideas Mattered. New York: Transaction Publishers, 2016.
Sociologist Nathan Glazer’s remarkably long and productive career as a New York intellectual spans seven decades from the Great Depression era to the late twentieth century. A voracious intellect with a perpetual sense of curiosity, he defies easy labeling.… More

From a Cause to a Style: Modernist Architecture’s Encounter with the American City

– Glazer, Nathan. From a Cause to a Style: Modernist Architecture's Encounter with the American City. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.
In this collection of articles and essays on modernism and the American city, Glazer finds that modernism has fallen short of its ambitious goal to enhance the conditions under which ordinary people live.

We Are All Multiculturalists Now

– Glazer, Nathan. We Are All Multiculturalists Now. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997.
Glazer explores the changes in American society, arguing that the “melting pot” and assimilation have been discarded in favor of multiculturalism. He highlights what this change means for national unity, civil society, and especially for the education of… More

New Immigration: A Challenge to American Society

– Glazer, Nathan. New Immigration: A Challenge to American Society. San Diego: San Diego State University Press, 1990.
Part of the Distinguished Graduate Research Lecture Series, Glazer examines the social and political implications of immigration to the United States during the 1980s.

The Limits of Social Policy

– Glazer, Nathan. The Limits of Social Policy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988.
Written in 1988, The Limits of Social Policy looks back at the social policies of the 1960s and 1970s, and how they went wrong in the 1980s with social scientists, politicians, and Americans.  Glazer argues that some important social policy problems were… More

The Public Face of Architecture

– Glazer, Nathan and Mark Lilla, editors. The Public Face of Architecture: Civic Culture and Public Spaces. New York: Free Press, 1987.
Edited by Nathan Glazer and Mark Lilla, The Public Face of Architecture brings together a collection of works highlighting architecture’s role in shaping public life.

Ethnic Dilemmas, 1964-1982

– Glazer, Nathan. Ethnic Dilemmas 1964-1982. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985.
Ethnic Dilemma’s encompasses a collection of Glazer’s essays from 1964 to 1982.  These essays chronicle Glazer’s reaction to the Civil Rights Movement’s goals, policies, and federal government effort to bring about equality,… More

Ethnic Groups in History Textbooks

– Glazer, Nathan and Reed Ueda. Ethnic Groups in History Textbooks. Washington: Ethics and Public Policy Center, 1983.
By comparing six American history textbooks, Glazer and Ueda find an attempt by the authors to foster understanding and respect toward all ethnic groups.  Yet, they believe U.S. ethnic history is too simplified, and should not represented as a story of an… More

Prejudice

– Pettigrew, Thomas, George Fredrickson, Dale Knobel, Nathan Glazer and Reed Ueda. Prejudice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982.
Glazer, along with his fellow authors, define and describe prejudice, while analyzing discrimination in America and the efforts to end it.

Ethnicity: Theory and Experience

– Glazer, Nathan and Daniel Moynihan, editors, Ethnicity: Theory and Experience. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1975.
Along with Daniel Moynihan, Glazer both writes the Introduction and edited this work on modern ethnic identity.  The essays cover studies in ethnic groups in nations around the world.
View more Books »

Essays

Interview with Nathan Glazer

– John Kaag, "Interview with Nathan Glazer," Chronicle of Higher Education,  August 13, 2017.
Nathan Glazer interviewed by John Kaag in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Student protests, free-speech controversies, and debates over diversity in academe are nothing new to Nathan Glazer. A professor at the University of California at Berkeley and then… More

Underachieving in America: Researchers document international gaps, a journalist seeks the cause

– Glazer, Nathan. "Underachieving in America: Researchers document international gaps, a journalist seeks the cause." Review of Endangering Prosperity: A Global View of the American School by Eric A. Hanushek, Paul E. Peterson, and Ludger Woessmann, Education Next, Spring 2014.
Excerpt: Endangering Prosperity, with three distinguished authors and an eminent introducer, is devoted to one major point: the United States is truly falling behind not only the East Asian countries that for some time have scored best in international… More

The San Diego Story

– Glazer, Nathan. "The San Diego Story." Review of Tilting at Windmills: School Reform, San Diego, and America’s Race to Renew Public Education by Richard Lee Colvin, Education Next, Winter 2014.
Excerpt: Reading this account of Alan Bersin’s successful, by the test scores, but highly contentious time as school superintendent in San Diego, 1998–2005, I could not help but think back to an account of another successful superintendency, that of Pat… More

Cultural Exchange

– Glazer, Nathan. "Cultural Exchange." Review of The Immigrant Advantage: What We Can Learn from Newcomers to America about Health, Happiness, and Hope by Claudia Kolker, Education Next, Fall 2013.
Excerpt: “The Immigration Spring” reads the title of the lead editorial in the New York Times today as I write this review of The Immigrant Advantage. The Times is welcoming a rare case of cooperation between Republicans and Democrats in addressing the… More

To YouTube and Beyond

– Glazer, Nathan. "To YouTube and Beyond." Review of The One World School House by Salman Khan, Education Next, Summer 2013.
Excerpt: We are getting used to explosive growth in the world of the Internet (note Facebook), but Salman Khan’s creation, in a few short years, of Khan Academy, with its potentially enormous impact on the slow-moving world of K–12 education, is still… More

Action Civics

– Glazer, Nathan. "Action Civics." Review of No Citizen Left Behind by Meira Levinson, Education Next, Spring 2013.
Excerpt: Meira Levinson is not your run-of-the-mill or even your teach-for-democracy middle-school teacher. She taught in middle schools with minority and low-income children in Atlanta and Boston for eight years (she notes in passing that she was tenured in… More

Belmont and Fishtown Part Ways

– Glazer, Nathan. "Belmont and Fishtown Part Ways." Review of Coming Apart by Charles Murray, Education Next, Fall 2012.
Excerpt: On the publication of Charles Murray’s Coming Apart, New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote, “I’ll be shocked if there’s another book as important this year…,” but after an initial flurry of reviews and critiques, no further… More

Grading the President: With Race to the Top, Obama earns a B+ in ed reform

– Glazer, Nathan. "Grading the President: With Race to the Top, Obama earns a B+ in ed reform." Review of President Obama and Education Reform: The Personal and the Political by Robert Maranto and Michael Q. McShane, Education Next, Fall 2012.
Excerpt: This book, and this review, will be published while the presidential campaign is in full swing, and whether there will be anything more to be said about President Obama’s efforts at education reform, still fragmentary now, depends on the outcome of… More

My Life in Sociology

– Glazer, Nathan. "My Life in Sociology." Annual Review of Sociology 38, 2012.
Excerpt: Following on an article in Bennett Berger (1990),Authors of Their Own Lives, titled “From Socialism to Sociology,” in which I and other sociologists describe how we came to sociology, I continue with my academic and public career as a… More

Moynihan Redux

– Glazer, Nathan. "Moynihan Redux." Review of Shortchanging Student Achievement: The Educational, Economic, and Social Costs of Family Fragmentation by Mitch Pearlstein, Education Next, Summer 2012.
Excerpt: This book comes to us with a remarkable range of recommenders: Glenn Loury, Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom, Eric Hanushek, Ron Haskins, Heather MacDonald, David Blankenhorn, Chester Finn, and others. It is published as part of a series edited by… More
View more Essays »

Multimedia

Arguing the World

– Arguing the World. Directed by Joseph Dorman and Irving Howe. 1998.  New York, NY: First Run Features.
This enthralling film creates a vivid picture of intellectual life in the 20th century.  Irving Howe, Daniel Bell, Nathan Glazer and Irving Kristol have all passionately believed that their ideas can change the world.

Multiculturalism

– Nathan Glazer, C-SPAN, May 13, 1997.
Professor Glazer, the author of We Are All Multiculturalists Now, spoke about the debate over multiculturalism.  He examined the implications of this debate, especially as it relates to public education, and stressed how U.S. society has moved beyond… More